Frederick Douglass takes pride of place in Belfast; National Hunger Strike March for Cork: Gino and the Pen Behind The Wire.
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Frederick Douglass takes pride of place in Belfast
A great crowd turned out on Monday morning in
Lombard St. in Belfast City Centre for the unveiling by Belfast City Ard Mheara
Ryan Murphy of a very fine statue of Frederick Douglass, escaped slave and
human rights campaigner. It is a striking image of Douglass who is an iconic
figure for his work on campaigning for an end to slavery and for equality and
justice for African Americans and for women. He visited Ireland in 1845-46 just
before the worst years of The Great Hunger.
He gave over fifty speeches during his time here.
They are evidence of his great affection for Ireland and his
recognition of the connection between the treatment of African Americans and of
most Irish people in the 19thcentury under British rule. His words
are a reminder of the evil and
horror that was and is slavery and of the work of the anti-slavery movement
that was active in Ireland during his visit.
Slavery had been opposed by radical Presbyterian’s
in Belfast in the late 18th century. Efforts to form a slave
company in the city were thwarted not least through the efforts of Thomas
McCabe, a United Irishman. Decades later a Ladies Anti-Slavery Society carried
on that good work. One of its founding members was Mary Anne McCracken, sister
of Henry Joy McCracken.
Douglass published his autobiography, ‘The
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave’ in
1845. The threat that pro-slaver elements would kidnap him and return his
as a slave to his former ‘owner’ was so great that he left the USA. He
arrived in Dublin where on 3 September 1845 he gave his first lecture. Over the
following months he travelled to Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and
Belfast. He returned to Belfast another four times.
Ireland was in his own word “transformative.” He
also witnessed the awful conditions endured by Irish peasants and the impact of
An Gorta Mór – the Great Hunger. Consequently, Douglass increasingly saw the
issue of slavery not in isolation but as part of a wider campaign for equality
and social justice. He wrote: “I see much here to remind me of my
former condition, and I confess I should be ashamed to lift up my voice against
American slavery, but that I know the cause of humanity is one the world over.”
At the unveiling of the statue there was a group of
young people from universities across the USA who are Frederick Douglass
Fellows. They have been in Ireland for a week learning about his time here.
Also present were Professor Christine Kinealy and Don Mullan who have written
extensively on Douglass and Takura Donald Makoni who is a policy officer with
the African Caribbean Support Organisation in Belfast.
Christine Kinealy is a historian, author and founding director of Ireland's Great Hunger
Institute at Quinnipiac University in
Connecticut. She has written extensively on Daniel O’Connell, the Great Hunger
and, of course Frederick Douglass. In 2018 she published two authoritative
volumes on the life and times of Douglass and his visits to Ireland and to
Belfast.
Douglass’s close
association with Belfast is a part of our history that needs to be told and
retold. It is also a reminder that the evil of slavery and the desperate plight
of refugees and asylum seekers are still with us. Slavery is not the
past. It is the present. Modern slavery may involve multiple forms of
exploitation, including human trafficking, child slavery, servitude, forced
marriages and forced or compulsory labour. Many are women forced into
prostitution or domestic servitude. Women's Aid Belfast and Lisburn has
recently reported that they are currently dealing with more than 230 female
victims of human trafficking. In addition, there are millions across the world
dispossessed and fleeing war and hunger in their own places. Refugees and
asylum seekers who deserve our solidarity and support.
So, the work of Frederick
Douglass is not finished. Much progress has been made but the issues of racism
and inequality and slavery continue to challenge society today. Last Christmas
the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that
as many as fifty million people are trapped in slavery. These are men, women
and children who “cannot refuse or cannot leave because of threats, violence,
deception, abuse of power or other forms of coercion.”
There is an obligation on all of us to speak out –
just like Frederick Douglass, Thomas McCabe, Mary Ann McCracken and many
others. Frederick Douglass’s statue in the heart of Belfast is a reminder of
the proud history of this city in opposing slavery and of the work still to be
done.
Well done to Belfast City Council, to the sculptor
Alan Beattie Herriot and his associate and fellow sculptor Hector Guest.
Fàilte abhaile Frederick.
National Hunger Strike March for Cork
For the first time the annual National Hunger
Strike Commemoration will be held in Cork City on Sunday 27 August to
remember the ten 1981 hunger strikers and Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg.
First Minister designate Michelle O’Neill will be the main speaker.
The Cork event will also remember those Cork
republicans Terence MacSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Denis Barry
and Andy O’Sullivan who died on hunger strike during the Tan War and the Civil
War and all of those who died on hunger strike in the intervening years.
Those participating in the
National Hunger Strike Commemoration will assemble at 2pm at Kennedy Quay, Cork
City. It will proceed through the city centre to the National Monument at Grand
Parade. Bígí linn.
Gino and the Pen Behind The Wire.
Prisoners Day is an important date in the Féile an
Phobail calendar. The event on August 11 in the Felon’s Club is an opportunity
to look at exhibitions, hear talks on issues affecting former POWs, including
this year an up-to-date on the CR Gas campaign.
A few weeks ago I noted the upcoming launch at
Prisoners Day of a wonderful book of poetry, The Pen Behind The Wire, by Eoghan
‘Gino’ MacCormaic. At the back of the book there is a list of family and
friends and comrades who recorded some of Gino’s poems with QR codes for readers
to listen to the spoken word. Among the many contributors are his wife and
other family members, Christy Moore, Lucilita Bhreatnach, Rosie McCorley, Gerry
Kelly, mé féin and many more.
Gino follows in that centuries long tradition of
republican political prisoners who used their time in English prisons to write
about their experience. Gino writes about the international experience also and
life beyond the walls of the H-Blocks where he spent 15 years – five of them on
the blanket.
There 76 poems in The Pen Behind The Wire. Well
done Gino.
Among them is ‘Easter 1982’. It is a
recollection of the first Easter parade in the Blocks at which the names
of their fallen hunger strike comrades were read out.
Easter 1982
The Roll of Honour was
read, proudly,
And this year I
listened, hearing for the first time
Bobby, Frank, and
Raymond, Patsy, Joe,
Martin and Kevin,
Kieran, Tom and Mickey.
I remembered then, in
that yard
In the quietness of
Long Kesh, Easter 1982
I remembered another
Easter, two years before
When we stood, with
the Ten
Behind our locked
doors.
Naked but for our
robes, our blankets. On protest.
We thought, that day,
that we would lose ten comrades
On hunger strike,
demanding rights that now were greater
Than clothes? And two
years on
Who could say the
hunger strikers did not win?
Two minutes of
silence. Parade! Dismiss!
And for a moment I
heard again the soft sound
Of five hundred bare
feet stamping on the floor.
SInead O Connor.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of
Sinead O Connor. Acres of words have been written about her since the sad,
abrupt news of her death. But the most poignant are the stories of the many
quiet acts of kindness she was involved in.
A fierce warrior woman with a mighty voice and a
good heart. Sinead was sound. An inspirational part of what we are. Go
ndeanfaidh Dia trocaire uirthi.
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